1. Field
The present invention relates to automated electronic processing and provisioning of telecommunications products and services, and particularly to the integration of logical and physical tasks from multiple worklists into a single dynamic worklist.
2. Description of the Related Art
The service delivery process for telecommunications service providers requires a sequential series of steps often performed by different work centers or stations. The work stations may be internal to the telecommunications service, but typically also include external sources such as Local Exchange Carriers (LEC), for example, to fill a customer's order. In some cases, one step must be completed in order to progress to the next. Therefore, coordination between the work stations to provision a placed order is typically accomplished using a “work-when-scheduled” logic flow: setting a standard work schedule, with static dates of completion for each task, based on an original estimated time of completion. In other words, the order does not progress to a subsequent task until the scheduled date, regardless of the lapse in time that may occur between the completion of one task and the start of the next task.
Though this procedure generally allows successful sequential passing of the order from one workstation to the next, it presents several disadvantages. For one, there is no flexibility to complete an order in advance of schedule, and if a task is not timely completed, manual adjustments to the work schedule must then be made. Therefore, the process is extremely inefficient.
With the advent of electronic documents and Internet-based ordering forms, it has been possible to significantly reduce the amount of human interaction and improve efficiency at least in the ordering process for numerous types of products and services, including telecommunications. In addition, maintaining work schedules in a computer database accessible via the Internet allows more flexibility in provisioning each order, i.e., in supplying the services associated with each order, and in adjusting the scheduled dates of completion should problems arise.
However, due to the historical evolution of the telecommunications industry from a single type of service and one service provider to a multitude of different service providers and services available, there will typically be several different work schedules which must be monitored for successful completion of an order for a particular service, i.e., for a service order. Furthermore, each work schedule may be prepared and maintained using a different computer application, which is typically a legacy application inherited from languages, platforms, and techniques that may not be current with existing technology. With new types of services continually emerging due to the rapid growth of telecommunications technology, the complexity in layering the new technology over the old is ever increasing. Consequently, the process for provisioning orders for these newer services has likewise grown in complexity.
One example of a more recent telecommunications service being offered is managed router service, which may interface with, for example, an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network. The router itself can be either a hardware device or a software application that routes a data packet on a corporation's Virtual Private Network (VPN) Intranet, for example. The data packet may contain voice-over Internet Protocol (IP), as well as data such as point of sale information, and credit card authorization data. Therefore, in provisioning an order for managed router service to a commercial customer, the retailer providing the service must typically coordinate between work centers to provide the ATM network, the IP telephony services, and integrate traditional transport circuits to connect between switching offices or service providers (Long Distance Providers (LDPs) and LECs) as needed.
Each work center providing these services generates and maintains its own worklist of tasks on a native application. Coordinating between the different work centers and users trying to complete the various tasks in each work center is a difficult task.
One conventional approach to dealing with the increasing complexity in provisioning such new services, is to replace the several legacy applications required to provision each type of new service with an entirely new application that integrates the various required services. Though this approach solves the problem of integrating several applications, it is costly and inefficient. In addition, a new application may have to be developed to accommodate each new emerging service. Finally, the development of one new work-when-scheduled application does not, in itself, solve the problem of how to interface between different service providers, or how to efficiently layer the new technology over the old in order to improve the work flow of the provisioning process.
There is a particular need, therefore, which is not provided for in the prior art, to provide a process for improving the work flow of a service delivery ordering and provisioning process, which requires coordination of completion of tasks between multiple worklists, particularly for use by telecommunications products and service providers.